Now this is a bit troubling, because for all intents and purposes it does appear that this person is engaged in some type of conversation on a device, BUT IS IT A PHONE? If it is a phone, then where are the cell phone towers that should have existed since 1928? And if the person was a TIME TRAVELER, there would still need to be cell towers or something to carry on a conversation. Now I am wondering if this is some sort of HOAX....why? because this was revealed on 20th October 2010 or 20/10/2010...2010/2010...Hmmmmm? Also the footage looks extremely clear considering it was 1928...almost looks like a new movie filmed in Black and White. Is someone looking for another distraction to keep peoples mind off of the economies of the world...in particular america?

BTW If cell phones were around in 1928 then why the hell did phones go from cellular to ring ups, to rotary, to push button and back to cellular?

1. However, the person seems to be Talking, not just LISTENING and is clearly engaged in a 'conversation'.

2. When he/she turns toward the camera, I don't see any large box hanging where the necktie would be (see the ad in the url above). The device was 'worn' outside and had and earphone cord.

3. How do we explain the 18" long feet?

From Name Withheld

Look at the shoes. Either that was the style, or her feet are about 18 inches long.

Possible applications of Achem's Razor...

A woman covering her ear from loud street noise, or perhaps protecting a sensitive ear from an ear ache or the wind; perhaps holding a bandage on? The evidence of her actually talking is highly debatable - she could be chewing something

That's crazy! It does look like she's talking, not chewing anything. Those are verbal motions, not chewing motions. She is holding something to her ear which means she's listening to something. wow, cool stuff. perhaps some kind of a portable wax cylinder recording device. But that wouldn't explain the need to hold something to the ear. I'm stumped. Maybe she's using a radio transmitter and receiver. She'd have to be lugging around a good sized battery and a good sized box but the technology for that was there then. Looking closer at the video she is carrying a rather large box shaped package on her right shoulder which is hanging by her side. You could build a radio transmitter and reciever using technology available from that period that would fit in that sized package. It's the only thing I could guess would be possible. either that or it's a cell phone and she's from the future.

Or it could have been some crazy cross dressing man talking to himself pretending to be talking on the phone but instead hold a cigarette case to his ear.

I think its very extremely unlikely but it could have been a time traveler talking on a communication device which isn't as likely because if some one brought technology from the future to the past they would be very irresponsible using it out in the open. I would assume if they were smart enough to travel back in time they would be responsible enough not to make a mistake like that.

Or it could have been some crazy cross dressing man talking to himself pretending to be talking on the phone but instead hold a cigarette case to his ear.

I think its very extremely unlikely but it could have been a time traveler talking on a communication device which isn't as likely because if some one brought technology from the future to the past they would be very irresponsible using it out in the open. I would assume if they were smart enough to travel back in time they would be responsible enough not to make a mistake like that.

another option. What if it's not a time traveler but someone from another world or someone working for someone from another world. I watched that video again and have to retract what I said about it possibly being a radio transmitter. In slow motion you can see it's a thin black device. There's no way they would have built the speaker/mic that thin back then even if she was lugging the radio components and battery around with her/him. And those shoes are freaky, looks size 14 on a person not over 5' 6"

There are several possibilities. Some of those are more comfortable possibilities than others. With just this video, there's really no way to definitely say which possibility is right. But it's fun to consider everything.

well it's true isn't it? I'm not saying this is for sure a time traveler or someone subject to alien technology but those are possibilities and it's easier for many to only consider what they feel are rational explanations originating from the world they see and know.

In a shocking twist, the vagrant-looking guy from the 1928 Charlie Chaplin footage may not have actually been a time-traveler talking on a cell phone. Live Science says the guy was probably just holding an old-timey hearing aide.

What [Insanely long-winded] Irish filmmaker George Clarke didn’t consider was that a simple ear trumpet could still explain it all, said hearing device historians. “As you can tell from these pictures, old-fashioned mechanical or resonating hearing aids were not necessarily long and rounded,” said Philip Skroska, an archivist at the Bernard Becker Medical Library of Washington University in St. Louis. “Short, compact rectangular forms were not unusual.” In other words, they could look something like a cell phone to imaginative YouTube viewers in the 21st century. [LiveScience]

Ear trumpets, well of course. Everyone had an ear trumpet back then. We used to use them so we could talk to each other while we were flagpole sitting, which was all the rage at the time. “Hey Jebediah, ain’t this flagpole sittin’ just the bee’s knees? Why I’m so happy I could do the Charleston,” we used to shout to each other, bee’s knees being a form of currency at the time. “Give ya six knees for a half shilling,” we used to say.

Time traveler using cell phone captured in 1928 video of Chaplin premiere?

There are stories that make the hair on the back of your neck stick straight up. Like the so-called ghost image of a kid who supposedly shot himself and can be viewed in some apartment scene in the movie "Three Men and a Baby". Of course, that was debunked when it was brought out that the scene was filmed on a sound stage and the image was nothing more than a cardboard cut out of Ted Danson that was made for a deleted scene from the flick.

What about the photo that allegedly shows Lee Harvey Oswald glancing at the Presidential motorcade from the doorway of the Texas School Book Deepository at roughly the same time he is said to be firing the fatal shots? That too, turned out to be false as the photo was of TSBD worker Billy Lovelady (who did, in fact, bare an uncanny resemblance to Oswald).UnderlineWhen something shows up that can not be explained, it changes our way of thinking until an answer is found. Take the video below which shows the crowd at the 1928 Grauman's Chinese Theater debut of Charlie Chaplin's "The Circus". It appears as though a lady in the crowd (or a man in drag) is using a cell phone as the device is put up to her ear. Now, we have all seen some amazing apps, but we don't think that a time traveling one has been developed at this moment. For what it's worth, in 1928 the Galvin Manufacturing Co. was founded. The name of that company today? Motorola.

source: ledger-enquirer

**UPDATE**A non-cellphone forum was discussing the video clip of the "time traveler" and someone posted these pictures below of hearing aids used in the 1920's. They were placed up to the ear in order for the person to hear. Of course, it doesn't explain her talking into the slab-like object in her hand!

well you can't deny she does look like she's talking. Her mouth is not making a regular chewing motion but rather verbal motions. A hearing aid doesn't explain that unless she just wanted to hear herself talk. And if that's what she does, walk around talking to herself, back then she would have been institutionalized. Plus, in the slow motion close up, you can clearly see the shape of the object she is holding. It's flat and fairly thin. This is why I ruled out my previous suggestion that it was part of a radio transmitter. That also rules out this hearing aid imo. The small portion of the hearing aid goes in the ear, the large portion would be near the front of her palm. That's the portion in the video that you can see is flat and thin so it doesn't match at all the large opening of the hearing aid.

well you can't deny she does look like she's talking. Her mouth is not making a regular chewing motion but rather verbal motions. A hearing aid doesn't explain that unless she just wanted to hear herself talk. And if that's what she does, walk around talking to herself, back then she would have been institutionalized. Plus, in the slow motion close up, you can clearly see the shape of the object she is holding. It's flat and fairly thin. This is why I ruled out my previous suggestion that it was part of a radio transmitter. That also rules out this hearing aid imo. The small portion of the hearing aid goes in the ear, the large portion would be near the front of her palm. That's the portion in the video that you can see is flat and thin so it doesn't match at all the large opening of the hearing aid.

I don't disagree with some of the points you are bringing up. She's seems to be certainly talking. She/He does look kind of crazy. Especially those shoes and the way she walks, the length of her stride all seem out of place. It's like Danny Divito with longer legs.

I wish the resolution made the stills clearer. It would easily settle this. It would be great if it was like on the movies where they zoom in on a part of a pic and clean it up.

You have to admit that Star Trek was cutting edge in the sense of having a device like this used to communicate about five decades ago

and today we have a device like this used to communicate as well

It all makes you wonder about the mindsets and technology that MAY have existed in the 1920s (Wasn't Tesla around then?)...if this really is a cell phone. We all have seen Star Trek and never considered strange the possibility of someone speaking through the device the astronauts used in the series, yet it is almost as strange looking at Captain Kirk do it (considering that technology didn't exist then either) as it is looking at this "lady" or cross dressed man doing it a couple of decades before capt Kirk did it... Hmmmm...interesting (says Spock) I will have to start paying attention to those trailers and extra footage in other movies who knows what the hell else might be discovered. This is like finding a Mercedes Benz in the Great Pyramid....